Scrapping the Senate: Between Sowore and his Critics

@SaharaReporters publisher and aspirant for @NGRPresident 2019, Omoyele Sowore has taken to his official Facebook page to clarify the misconception and misinformation published by Thisday.com of his intention to scrap @NGRSenate if elected President of Nigeria in 2019.

Read his statement below and comments from critics


I’ve repeatedly stated and fully understood that a President can’t unilaterally scrap the Nigerian Senate. However, I’ve also expressed the abrogation of the Senate as a “wish”, Senegal recently did scrap their Senate. South Korea is a without a Senate and they are doing so well. Also, I have spoken openly about this across the world in town hall meetings since I began interacting with Nigerians regarding my Presidential ambition.
The United States Of AMERICA with an estimated $20 trillion economy, 50 states and 320 million people is making do with 100 Senators it can afford. Nigeria on the other hand with a poor economy, 36 states and 198 million people is burdened with 109 largely unproductive gluttonous Senators with higher pay than US Senators.
I welcome all comments
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/07/27/sowore-pledges-to-scrap-senate-if-elected-president-in-2019/

Scrapping the Senate: Between Sowore and his Critics

My good friend, Omoyele Sowore, says he will scrap the Senate if he is elected president in 2019. Some Nigerians say the president has no power to do such a thing and that it would be dictatorial and unconstitutional. I agree, but with a caveat.

Obviously, Sowore is not suggesting that he would issue a decree to abolish the senate. Rather, taken in context, Sowore is advancing a provocative prescription to call attention to the unsustainably expensive presidential democracy we practice. In the same interview, he made this broader point about the price tag of the presidential system of bi-cameral legislature we copied uncritically from the Americans. He said the FG currently spends a whopping 1 trillion Naira annually to maintain the upper legislative chamber, an amount that could transform our agricultural and educational sectors. He then expressed the need to adopt a unicameral legislative system.

Sowore is not the first person to make this point. In 2008, I published an essay arguing that we should rethink the very foundation of this democracy we practice because it is too expensive, over-centralized, and thus ironically anti-development. Democracy is supposed to foster development; at least that's what we were told during the pro-democracy struggle in the 1990s. Alas, our democracy is a recipe for retrogression. I contended rather melodramatically that if we do not kill this democracy, it will kill us. I stand by that argument. I argued in that essay for a unicameral legislative system or a modified unicameral system.

It is not the only tweak we need, of course. Serious, far-reaching decentralization is a critical component of the change we need, and that is what Sowore failed to mention in his interview. Decentralization and localized governance in turn are the essence of the call for restructuring. You cannot have decentralization and a unicameral legislature without a new constitution. The senate is codified in the current constitution. The senate of course will not commit political suicide and amend the constitution to get rid of itself. There is thus an impasse, a conundrum.

If the existing democratic institution cannot reform itself to inaugurate a new era of cheaper, leaner, decentralized, sustainable, and development-friendly democracy, we need the reformist initiative to come from outside it. They say referendum is unconstitutional or extra-constitutional, so what real tools do we have to change the system then? Mention a constitutional conference or a national conference and they'll also tell you that it would be legitimacy-challenged as long as there is an elected legislative body in existence. The kind of change Nigeria needs is not possible under the current constitutional and democratic arrangement. We're thus in a constitutional and democratic trap/prison of our own making.

So, while I agree theoretically with Sowore's critics, I also sympathize with his point as it is borne out of frustration with a system that cannot reform itself and is designed to prevent the kind of far-reaching constitutional and structural reforms we need.

-Prof Moses Ochonu

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I am Angela Uyi aka Mama Naija|Two time Social Media Personality Winner| A smooth talker| Humanitaria| Ghost Writer| CopyWriter |Twitter:@Angelauyi |